Device for separating fibrous material

ABSTRACT

A device for separating fibrous material, for use with textile machines, and particularly open end spinning machines, includes a housing which defines a chamber. During operation of the device, and for the purpose of doffing separated fibers, an underpressure is maintained in said chamber. A carding roller is located within the chamber and is mounted for rotation by a bearing arrangement, which is itself at least partially located in the chamber. The bearing arrangement has at least one portion from which lubricant may leak and then, under the influence of the prevailing underpressure, be sucked into contact with the fibrous material being separated. To prevent such possibility, a pressurecompensation arrangement is provided which is adapted to prevent the lubricant from coming under the influence of the underpressure.

United States Patent 1191 Mladek et al. 1 Aug. 7, 1973 [54] DEVICE FOR SEPARATING FIBROUS 3,624,995 12/1971 Rajnoha et al 57/5895 M ATER] AL 3,624,997 12/1971 Didek et al. 57158.91

[75] Inventors: Milos Mladek: Bohumir Burget;

Ladislav Bures, all of Usti nad Orlici; Primary Examufer John Petrakes.

Assistant Examiner-Gary R. Roblnson Jamslav Rumba Tymste Attorney-Michael S Striker Orlici, all of Czechoslovakia [73] Assignee: Elitex, Zavody lext'ilniho [57] ABSTRACT Strojirenstvi, Llberec, Czechoslovakia A devlce for separating fibrous material, for use with textile machines, and particularly open end spinning d: Dec. 14, 1971 machines, includes a housing which defines a chamber. During operation of the device, and for the purpose of [21] Appl' 207835 doffing separated fibers, an underpressure is maintained in said chamber. A carding roller is located [30] Foreign Application Priority Data within the chamber and is mounted for rotation by a Dec. 22,1970 Czechoslovakia 8660/70 bearing g e h c s tself at least partially located in the chamber. The bearing arrangement has [52] [1.8. CI. 57/58.95 at least n p n fr m which lubric n may l ak and [51] Int. Cl D0lh 1/12 then, under the influence cf the prevailing underpres- [58] Field of Search 57/58.89, 58.91, sure, be sucked into a t th th fi r us ma a 57/5395 being separated. To prevent such possibility, a pressure-compensation arrangement is provided which [56] R fer n Cit d is adapted to prevent the lubricant from coming under UNITED STATES PATENTS the influence of the underpressure.

3,511,044 5/1970 Stary 57/5891 7 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures r 8 I i BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to devices for separating fibrous materials, such as are conventionally used with textile machines. I

Devices of the type in question are usually operated in conjunction with an adjoining spinning chamber. Ordinarily, they comprise a housing, a carding roller rotatable in the housing, ahd means for delivering fibrous material to the carding roller and then, after fiber separation, to the spinning chamber.

In this type of textile installation, rotation of the spinning chamber creates an underpressure within the spinning chamber and within the housing of the fiberseparating device. This underpressure serves to draw ambient air into the carding chamber through suitable passage means. Conventionally, the passage means .is provided at such location and with such orientation that incoming air doffs separated fibers from the teeth of the carding roller, and then sends them along a delivery passage, for delivery to the spinning chamber.

Such conventional fiber-separating devices are possessed-of very significant disadvantages. In particular the bearing arrangement for the fiber-separating roller is usually exposed to the prevailingunderpressure. If any imperfections should exist in the seals which seal the bearing and housing from the ambient atmosphere, there can result a flow of ambient air through such imperffictions, past the bearing arrangement, and into the r g chamber proper- Sush pr ure leaks, pe are not seriously objectionable,- since they do not ordiari y in erfe s with Prope doffing o th pa a bers. However, they are extremely objectionable in so far as they result in contamination of the fibers by various impurities.

The bearing a rang ment whi h moun the cardin roller, in particular, requires the use of grease or another suilablfi lubricant, and a certain amount of leakage from the bearing arrangement is inevitable. If, now, the imperfect sealing between bearing and housing has resulted in aflow of air past the bearing, the leaked lubricant will be entrained, in the form of dispersed droplets or fluff," in such flow of air. The lubricant will thereupon be sucked with such stream into the carding chamber proper, where it will contact the fibrous material being separated. This is extremely undesirable. I

Fibers thusly contaminated by lubricant from the bearing means will suffer greatly in appearance and, depending on the materials involved, also in strength. The fibers will be of uneven quality and have a sticky surface, to which will adhere further contaminants such as may be present in the carding chamber. In addition, the weakening of the fibers results in an increased number of yarn breakages, and the space surrounding the carding roller will gradually become clogged by that part of the lubricant which does not actually reach the fibers. The bearing arrangement, itself, will also suffer, inasmuch as it will continually run short of lubricant.

A device is known in the prior art for overcoming this unfortunate situation; In that device, the carding roller was provided on its axial end face facing the bearing arrangement with radial and spiral grooves. The space surrounding the carding roller was connected, in the vicinity of the bearing arrangement and via a passage, with the ambient atmosphere, and it was hoped that the grease-laden air streaming from the bearing arrangement should proceed, not into contact with the fibrous material being separated, but rather through such passage to the exterior of the housing. This solution to the problem was found quite unsatisfactory. While the grease was to some extent detoured" to the housing exterior, it was, nevertheless, continually sucked out of the bearing arrangement by the passing stream of air,

' and thus excessively consumed. When it was attempted to reduce the underpressure prevailing in the vicinity of the bearing arrangement, by increasing the crosssection of the detour passage, it was found that the underpressure required for doffing the separated fibers was then too much weakened.-

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is, accordingly, a general object of the present invention toovercome the disadvantages outlined above.

More particularly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a fiber-separating arrangement for use with textile machines, which is not possessed of these disadvantages. I

A further object of the invention is to provide such a fiber-separating device'in which 'lubricant leaked from the carding-roller bearing arrangement is not sucked into contact with the fibrous material being processed. I

In pursuance of the above objects, and of others which will become apparent hereafter, one feature of the invention resides, briefly stated, in a device for separating fibrous material for use with textile machines, particularly open end spinning machines, which comprises a housing defining a chamber which, during operation of the device, is maintained at an underpressure. A fiber separating roller is located within the chamber and is mounted for rotation by a bearing arrangement which is positioned at least partially in the chamber. The bearing arrangement has at least one portion from which lubricant may leak and then, under the influence of the developed underpressure, be sucked into contact with the fibrous material being separated. Finally, the novel device includes a pressurecompensating arrangement adapted to prevent the leaked lubricant from coming under the influence of the prevailing underpressure.-

The construction of the pressure-compensation arrangement is such that it effectively eliminates the underpressure in the vicinity of those bearing arrangement portions from which lubricant might leak. At the same time, the novel pressure-compensation arrangement will not detrimentally affect the underpressure which is necessary at other locations within the housing for the purpose of doffing separated fibers.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the pressure-compensation arrangement comprises a channel system communicating with the carding chamber and with the ambient atmosphere. The channel system has at least one section opening directly upon a surface of the bearing arrangement, at a location intermediate the carding roller and the portions from which lubricant may leak. As a result of such construction, inwardly streaming drafts arising from sealing imperfections between bearing arrangement and housing will not travel past the bearing arrangement into the carding chamber. Instead, the detrimental influence of such sealing imperfections will be pneumatically short-circuited by the pressure compensation atrangement in such a manner that leaked lubricant will be prevented from travelling into the carding chamber. In fact, leaked lubricant will come under the influence of underpressure hardly at all.

It is a further concept ofthe present invention to prevent lubricant contamination resulting from the combined effects of underpressure and, for instance, gravity. That is, it is a further concept of the invention to counteract travel to the carding chamber of leaked lubricant under the influence, for instance, of gravity, where pressure compensation alone might be insufficient.

In accordance with this further concept, sealing means is provided of a simple and advantageous nature which effectively seals those portions of the bearing arrangement from which leaked lubricant might be brought by gravity into regions within the housing where the aforedescribed underpressure prevails. The sealing means contemplated may be provided in a variety of forms and, advantageously, is associated with a collecting chamber within the fiber-separating housing. This collecting chamber serves to collect and retain leaked lubricant which, as shall be seen, issues from the bearing arrangement particularly during start-up of the carding device.

The novel features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in particular in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its construction and its method of operation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a horizontal section through a somewhat schematically illustrated device according to the present invention; and

FIG. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section through the device of FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Discussing now the embodiment illustrated in the drawing, it will be seen that reference numeral 1 identifies a carding roller mounted in a housing composed of housing sections 6 and 3. The carding roller 1 is usually mounted for rotation about an upright axis 101 on antifriction bearing arrangement 2 provided in bearing housing 16. The bearing arrangement is, in turn, connected with a suitable driving member 4 of entirely conventional nature, which may itself be a drive, or else connected in non-illustrated manner with a drive. It will be understood. of course, that it is driving member 4 which imparts rotational motion to the carding roller 1.

The carding roller 1 is provided on its circumferential surface with needles, or other carding means, 8. De fined between carding roller 1 and the housing in which it is positioned is a clearance 5, best seen in FIG. 2. A feeding mechanism 7 feeds fibrous sliver to be separated onto the teeth 8 of the roller 1.

At the side of the carding device opposite the feeding mechanism 7 there is provided a feeding tube 9 which penetrates the axial clearance 5. Feeding tube 9 extends tangentially of the carding roller 1 and is provided at one end with an opening 11 communicating with the ambient atmosphere and, at its other end, with an opening communicating with spinning chamber 10 of an adjoining spinning stage. I

When spinning 'chamber 10 is rotated, air within it is expelled through outlets 10a under the influence of the developing centrifugal force, causing-an underpressure within the housing composed of sections 6 and 3. As a result of such underpressure, ambient'air is sucked through entrance opening 11 into feeding tube 9, where it will doff separated fibers from the carding teeth or needles 8, and then convey'such doffed fibers down the length of the feeding tube 9 for delivery to spinning chamber 10. Advantageously, a filter 12 is provided across the opening 11 of the feeding tube 9, so as to prevent the entrance of impurities and contaminants present in the atmosphere.

It will be seen that the fllter l2 additionally extends across a channel 14, which channel constitutes part of the pressure-compensation arrangement. Channel 14 extends radially inwardly of the housing section 3, and opens into a peripheral hollow 15 which surrounds a circumferential portion of bearing housing 16. Peripheral hollow 15, in turn, merges into clearance 5, mentioned before.

When, now, underpressure develops in clearance 5 and in peripheral hollow IS, the suction developed in the clearance and hollow will no longer draw a stream of ambient air into the housing through sealing gaps between the housing 16 of the antifriction bearing 2 and the lower portion of housing section 3. On the contrary, a pneumatic short-circuiting of this possibility will be effected, the suction developed instead drawing in a stream of air through the channel 14. The channel 14 accordingly serves for pressure-compensation, in that lubricant is not merely detoured away from the fibrous material being separated, but in fact is hardly subjected to the influence of underpressure suction at all. In this way, contamination of the fibers and excessive consumption of lubricant are simultaneously avoided. It is to be noted, moreover, that while this pneumatic shortcircuiting is highly effective for its intended purpose, it does not result in a suction decrease within the carding chamber of such magnitude as might interfere with effective doffing of separated fibers.

It is clear that, with the pressure-compensation arrangement described, lubricant leaking from the lower part (as seen in FIG. 2) of bearing housing 16 will simply remain at the exterior of the housing. Such, however, is not the case with lubricant leaking from the upper part (as seen in FIG. 2) of the bearing housing 16. It will be seen that this end of bearing housing 16 is located inwardly of the axial end face 19 of the roller 1 and positioned within a bore provided in such end face. It will furthermore be seen that this bore and the additional portion ofthe bearing arrangement have juxtaposed circumferential surfaces, down between which leaked lubricant may travel. Pneumatic short-circuiting will not be sufficient to prevent contamination by lubricant issuing from this end of the bearing.

Applicants have accordingly found it advantageous to provide a sealing arrangement between these juxtaposed surfaces. This arrangement, in a preferred embodiment, is a labyrinth seal provided on one or the other of the surfaces. FIG. 2 shows the labyrinth seal provided on the inner peripheral surface of the axial bore, but it could equally well be provided on the outer 'peripheral surface of the housing 16. Of course, other sealing arrangements may be employed, depending on a variety of factors, such as whether axis 101 is oriented in horizontal or vertical direction, etc. Such other sealing arrangements include, for example, ring and sleeve seals, as well as other conventional sealing means.

In the construction illustrated, labyrinth sealing arrangement 17 immediately adjoins a collecting chamber 18 formed as part of the axial bore just described. When the carding roller is started up, the lubricant ejected from this end of the bearing arrangement by centrifugal force will be retained in the collecting chamber 18 and prevented, by sealing arrangement 17, from issuing out of the axial bore into the clearance 5.

It will be appreciated that numerous modifications of the described construction are possible. Thus, the axis 101 of bearing, roller and housing may be oriented in any of various directions, and not only vertically as shown. Likewise, whereas only one channel 14 has been illustrated, more than one, or even a circumferentially distributed channel system, may be provided.

It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or two or more together, may also find a useful application in other types of constructions differing from the types described above.

While the.invention has been illustrated and described as embodied in a device for separating fibrous materials for use with textile machines, it is not intended to be limited to the detailsshown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.

Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist of the present invention that others can by applying current knowledge readily adapt it forvarious applications without omitting features that from the standpoint of prior art fairly constitute essential characteristics of the generic or specific aspects of this invention and, therefore, such adaptations. should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalence of the following claims;

What is claimed as new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent is set forth in the appended We claim:

1. A device for separating fibrous material for use with textile machines, particularly open end spinning machines, comprising a housing defining a chamber which, during operation of said device, is maintained at an underpressure; a fiber separating roller located within said chamber; a bearing arrangement mounting said roller for rotation and being positioned at least partially in said chamber, said bearing arrangement having at'least one portion outside said chamber from which lubricant may leak to be potentially sucked into contact with the fibrous material being separated, under the influence of such underpressure; and pressure-compensation means adapted to prevent leaked lubricant from coming under the influence of said underpressure, said pressure-compensation means comprising pressure-compensation channel means having at least one section opening directly upon a surface of said bearing arrangement, at a location intermediate said roller and said at least one portion from which lubricant may leak, and also communicating with air at a pressure higher than said underpressure.

2. A device as defined in claim I, wherein said pressure-compensation channel means communicates with said chamber and with the ambient atmosphere.

3. A device as defined in claim 2, wherein said pressure-compensation channel means is provided with filter means at the section thereof communicating with the ambient atmosphere.

4. A device as defined in claim 2, wherein said roller is provided with an axial bore in an axial end face thereof, and wherein said bearing arrangement ineludes an additional portion from which lubricant may leak located inwardly of said axial end face of said roller and within said axial bore; and further comprising sealing means preventing said lubricant from issuing out of said bore.

5. A device as defined in claim 4, wherein said sealing means is provided in the form of a labyrinth'seal.

6. A device as defined in claim 4, wherein said bore and additional, portion .of said bearing arrangement have juxtaposed circumferential surfaces; and wherein said sealing means includes annular recesses provided in one of said surfaces.

7. A device as defined in claim 4, wherein said bore includes a portion constituting a collecting chamber inwardly of said sealing means and serving to collect lubricant leaking from said additional portion. 

1. A device for separating fibrous material for use with textile machines, particularly open end spinning machines, comprising a housing defining a chamber which, during operation of said device, is maintained at an underpressure; a fiber separating roller located within said chamber; a bearing arrangement mounting said roller for rotation and being positioned at least partially in said chamber, said bearing arrangement having at least one portion outside said chamber from which lubricant may leak to be potentially sucked into contact with the fibrous material being separated, under the influence of such underpressure; and pressure-compensation means adapted to prevent leaked lubricant from coming under the influence of said underpressure, said pressure-compensation means comprising pressure-compensation channel means having at least one section opening directly upon a surface of said bearing arrangement, at a location intermediate said roller and said at least one portion from which lubricant may leak, and also communicating with air at a pressure higher than said underpressure.
 2. A device as defined in claim 1, wherein said pressure-compensation channel means communicates with said chamber and with the ambient atmosphere.
 3. A device as defined in claim 2, wherein said pressure-compensation channel means is provided with filter means at the section thereof communicating with the ambient atmosphere.
 4. A device as defined in claim 2, wherein said roller is provided with an axial bore in an axial end face thereof, and wherein said bearing arrangement includes an additional portion from which lubricant may leak located inwardly of said axial end face of said roller and within said axial bore; and further comprising sealing means preventing said lubricant from issuing out of said bore.
 5. A device as defined in claim 4, wherein said sealing means is provided in the form of a labyrinth seal.
 6. A device as defined in claim 4, wherein said bore and additional portion of said bearing arrangement have juxtaposed circumferential surfaces; and wherein said sealing means includes annular recesses provided in one of said surfaces.
 7. A device as defined in claim 4, wherein said bore includes a portion constituting a collecting chamber inwardly of said sealing means and serving to collect lubricant leaking from said additional portion. 